Why Are We Allowing This to Happen?

The blatant injustice and reprehensible treatment of Sexual Assault survivors in the military makes me nauseous; why are we allowing this to happen? We all received massive amounts of overly repetitive training that is supposed to prevent sexual assault from happening and when it does occur address what is supposed to happen. Obviously it isn’t working in any way, shape or form. I find it absolutely disgusting.

In my entire career I only ever had one senior leader really address it head on and take a stand. When he stood up in front o the entire brigade and told everyone that survivors will be believed and perpetrators will be prosecuted, I believed him. Maybe it was because of the history I had with him, he was my company commander in my first unit after i finished training and the brigade commander int he last unit I served in before I retired. More importantly as I looked around at the other soldiers in the formation, I think they all believed him.

We see that statistics show only a small percentage of what actually occurs in the military. The Army was always shoving the “Army Values” down our throats, but they are often ignored and aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Many commanders are only interested in what is easy and expedient, not what is right. We see this in the treatment of sexual assault survivors and service members who are discharged with bad conduct discharges who have PTSD and TBI.

Some members of Congress support reforms and these reforms are starting to gain some traction. We will see who the next president is and if they allow any of this to be addressed. What I would ask all of you is to read about this, be aware and write to your representatives in Congress and ask them to support reforms that will address this!